


an unpleasant surprise, and an uninvited guest

by violetinfidel



Series: drabbles [9]
Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords
Genre: Author's Favorite, and then a sequel to the sequel, because i love writing him like this so much, god I love this one so much, i love writing nasty shadow hes fantastic, theres another drabble. a sequel to this bit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-29
Updated: 2018-05-29
Packaged: 2019-05-15 05:23:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14784333
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/violetinfidel/pseuds/violetinfidel





	an unpleasant surprise, and an uninvited guest

Hylians were so incredibly  _stupid_  it was funny. He’d seen his opening and taken it; somehow, inexplicably, a passage to Hyrule had been opened. So he’d gone through it, clawed himself out against the harsh kickback of the light, emerged from frothing darkness on the other side of the Mirror, under the new moon.

Stupid, stupid Hylians, with their little pet projects. They’d been  _repairing_  the Mirror. All signs point to it, the tools laid carefully by its frame, the fragments pieced together on its horizontal surface, some pathetic little signs staked around that probably say something stupid like “keep away”. He can’t read Hylian, but he knows how they love their little useless measures. So unbelievably  _stupid_ \- they’re inviting another Vaati in. What’s the point of putting it back together? It certainly isn’t in anyone’s best interests, except maybe his own.

He’s laughing at them all the way to the castle. They aren’t going to suspect  _anything_ , are they? He’s got a better shot on his own than he ever did with the forces of Ganon at his back. What a rich little piece of irony that is. He’d love to rub it in their faces, but Vaati’s dead and Ganon is back in his thousand-year nap. Maybe he’ll just leave a memo.

He won’t even bother with Castle Town- not yet. No need to raise alarm when walking right in will be so deliciously easy. Take out the top of the pyramid, and work his way down, that’ll be the best way to do it. And he’s willing to bet that that Four Sword is back in its pedestal, rotting away in its temple ruins, waiting for another goddess-blessed airhead to yank it out again. All so stupid. He’d nearly destroyed that piece of crap back at the Fire Temple- they’d just gotten lucky, that time. Not going to happen again.

Guards are so dumb, so easy to fool. They’re looking for people, not shadows; he slips in and out of the darkness smooth as silk, waltzes right by, mutters a thing or two just to mess with ‘em. Won’t matter much soon. The ones stationed by the door look so ridiculous, caricatures of vigilance, the proudest of their stations. And he just laughs and waves as he moves right on by, because no one’s looking for a  _shadow_. Shadows are _harmless_.

“Hello, Princess,” He says as he strolls right into the throne room, “I do believe we have some unfinished business.”

The look of  _fear_  on her face as she turns is priceless, a deer staring down the shaft of an arrow. Someone up in the balcony shouts, sends a crossbow bolt at him; he laughs, flicks it away like they’d tossed a toothpick.

“This is between just us two,” He says, so conversationally, “Do me a favor and leave it that way, yeah?” There’s a thump as they fall to the floor, unconscious. An instant death is poor form and just no  _fun_.

She shouts, for someone he can’t quite make out from that distance. It doesn’t really matter, because he’s got her right where he wants her.

“Shadow Link. What are you doing in my realm?”

“What d’you think, sweetheart? I’ll give you three guesses, first two are free.”

She sets a fierce glare on him and says nothing.

He sighs, eases his feet off the floor, lets the flow of magic hold his weight. “Oh, you’re no fun. Some little idiot playing archaeologist pieced the Mirror back together, and, well, here I am! And like I said, I’ve got some unfinished business with you.”

Her resoluteness is admirable, even in the face of what she must understand is her death. “Do any others follow?”

“You think I’d give any of those fools a chance to take this from me? No one else but me. Flipped the Mirror and blocked the moon from it. They’re not coming back. You’re _welcome_ , by the way, for even breaking it in the first place. Really a nice thing to have done, if you ask me.”

“Well, I didn’t.”

“Oh, ouch,” He says, and laughs. “The Princess didn’t ask for my opinion. Guess I’ll just be on my way, then, huh?” He can hear footsteps approaching- another detail of guards, he assumes. “Funny. But I still haven’t gotten a thank you.”

“After everything that you’ve done to Hyrule?”

“What, saving it? Yeah, I  _said_  you’re  _welcome_! Why, now I’m almost regretting my decision.”

“Something tells me you already have, Shadow Link.”

The doors to the left of the throne burst open- Shadow’s prepared to knock out a few more guardsmen, but to his absolute delight, it’s Link. And it isn’t just Link, it’s the  _Links_ , separate and individual, and if this isn’t the most wonderful stroke of luck he’s ever hit then he doesn’t know what is.

“Well, it’s really a party now!”

Blue looks ready to charge him and he is so very _ready_ , he’s going to knock these fuckers into  _next week_. But maybe Blue’s gotten a little better about impulsivity, oh well, because their first move is to guard Zelda- of course, of course, their precious princess. And Red doesn’t look very scared of him, Green hardly looks nervous- so much has changed. But Vio; Vio is staring him down, icy and unreadable, bow at his back and sword drawn. Some things never change. The traitor and the princess and the heroes, things just could  _not_  go better for him today. He notices the magic rod at Red’s hip, and grins.

“Still playing with that toy I left you, huh, Red?”

Maybe he’s figured it out since Shadow ‘died’ or maybe he’s just gotten much better at masking his emotions, but it doesn’t seem to faze him. He’s scowling, with a fiercer gaze than Shadow’s ever seen on him. “It works.”

“Well, unfortunately for you, it works for me too.” A snap of his fingers and the rod’s superheated, halfway to flames, and only his reflexes save him; he tears it from its holster and tosses it away as far as he can, escapes the fire by mere seconds. “I wouldn’t just give you one of my favorite things and not expect it back, you know.”

“What are you doing here?” Green asks, same as the others, firm and unflinching. How far they’ve come.

“Oh, Green,  _I_  don’t know, what  _would_  I be doing at the castle so late at night in the throne room? Just came to drop by and say hello, offer my congratulations, you know the deal, no hostility here.”

Blue looks the closest to snapping, big surprise, and Shadow welcomes it- he knows the moment one of them breaks the rest will have to. “How did you get past the guard?!”

“Simple. They’re incompetent. They’re so focused on suspicious-looking strangers they don’t pay half a second’s attention to the shadows. I bet if even one had glanced back at the wall we wouldn’t be where we are. So make sure to give Valensuela my thanks, okay? And hey, while we’re at it, where’s your father? I got him once, I bet I could do it again. It was so simple: a little mimicry, a little blood, and it was like a fly to a web. Too easy.”

Green looks like he’s about to come and fight him, now, exactly his intentions with bringing the dad into it, but Vio puts a hand on his shoulder, shakes his head. Leave it to  _Vio_ to go and ruin things for him.

“You’re so  _quiet_ , Vio. What’s the matter, cat got your tongue? Cut out for  _treason_ , maybe?”

He can see that Vio isn’t going to rise to the bait, which is a great shame. It’d be an accomplishment to sing of if he could get that one breaking. “There is little to say on the matter. You know that you are not welcome here and we know that you do not care.”

“See, you might be a traitor, but at least you’ve got some sense. I don’t feel like going back through that whole spiel I had to with Zelda. All ‘why are you here’ and ‘how are you here’ and those other tired cliches. You already know, and it doesn’t really matter.”

There’s a tense silence, briefly; everyone knows that any move is going to incite a fight. He’s cocky, arrogant, and itching to kill one of them- he’s been waiting so  _long_ for this. And they know they can’t do very much about it.

“Will you all excuse me for just a moment,” Vio says, sheaths his sword and walks out, cool as ever.

The others look confused, and if that isn’t the funniest thing to Shadow- fitting, for someone like him, pulling that.

“Look at that, from four to three and I haven’t touched a soul! Really, it’s over now.”

And he starts casting magic, then, because he can’t be patient when victory is this close, almost in his hands. Their form is to defend Zelda, at first, with a chink where Vio ought to be, and they quickly realize that without four it doesn’t work, and Zelda has magic of her own to protect herself with. So they go on the offensive, or try to- Red without his rod is like swatting a fly, he’s been specializing too much with it, and Green’s hardly an issue when all he’s got is a sword, just a quick spell to knock it away and he’s done with. Blue’s a little trickier, the hammer hurts, and in a distracted moment when Zelda’s casting Blue manages to hit him good in the side, and he shouts in triumph. Until Shadow melts into the darkness, comes back out good as new, laughing.

“Idiot,” He sneers, with a maniac’s grin, blasts him aside like he’s nothing.

“I’ll save the princess for last, as befits her station, but I’m curious,” He says, and starts towards Green, “If I kill the original, do the copies die too?” Green is struggling to reach his sword, but it’s far away and he’s got some serious injuries if his crawl is anything to tell by. “Of course, I guess if that’s true then I won’t get to see Vio die a traitor’s end, but we can’t get everything, I suppose.”

He summons his copy of the Four Sword, to make sure the hero’s end comes with a brutal twist of irony, stands over Green and prepares the strike, and then he hears the door open again. He doesn’t make the rookie mistake of pausing, keeps going,  _almost_ has it before an arrow knocks the blade off-course, and it plunges into the ground and dissipates at his angry growl, stupid  _fucking_ traitor has to ruin  _everything_!

“You,” He snarls, turns to face him and finds Vio with the Bow of Light, very calmly sizing him up.

It’s almost comical, how quickly the arrogance melts into fear.

“Get away from them.”

And he hesitates, and then he does. Not very far, but away, enough for them to get back their weapons, and Zelda runs to help them and Vio keeps that deadly glowing arrow pointed straight at him.

“I am offering,” Vio says, slowly, carefully, “ _Once_ , the opportunity to leave, and not return. And I am sincerely hoping that you will show the appropriate level of wisdom and accept, because I do not want to tarnish this hall with your blood.”

“Vio-” He hears Green hiss, but Vio shuts him down with a glance.

“And you will do this with the understanding that I will kill you on sight next time. I do not care for excuses. You leave or you die, and I will make certain that the Mirror is irreparable.”

“Why  _bother_ ,” Shadow says, and hates how sharply his tone has dropped from confident to afraid.

“Think of it as our gratitude. What you have done is unforgivable, and it pains me to even let you go now. But I will not neglect to acknowledge that you helped.”

“Gratitude from a traitor, huh? Never heard that one before.”

Vio very noticeably adjusts his grip on the bow, and Shadow knows to back down now and leave, before he loses his chance.

“Fine,” He hisses, “Whatever, I accept, I won’t come back.” And he melts into darkness, and leaves, and knows that he didn’t mean a word of it.


End file.
